DARPA program develops sweet holographic tactical goggles

The programs that DARPA runs often result in some of the coolest hardware and gear for military and civilian use being invented. One of the cool things that DARPA and its contractors have been working on are holographic goggles that give soldiers a bit of augmented reality on the battlefield.

The goggles look more like sunglasses to me and have some really cool features. They will be able to interface with drones flying overhead to give the solider details on what the drone sees and what the drone is firing at. That capability will mean that the solider can get the intelligence that the drone sees directly without waiting for someone else to offer the report.

Another cool feature is that the goggles could tell the solider whether that jet or helicopter on the horizon is friend or foe. The glasses were developed in cooperation with Vuzix, the same company that makes the video glasses for consumers. They would use a head tracker to know where the wearer is looking and could tell you things like the jet is a friendly F-16 at 21,000 feet, 30 miles out in theory.